State Unions Criticize Governor

As state employee unions criticized Gov. John G. Rowland Thursday for his opposition to pay increases, the governor's budget director said he is planning for possible layoffs if the pay raises are approved.

Upping the ante in the administration's face-off with state workers, Reginald L. Jones, the budget director, said that residents should be aware of what could happen if arbitration awards for 10 bargaining units are approved next week for more than 21,000 state employees.

Until Thursday, Jones and other administration officials had avoided talking about layoffs or potential cuts in state payments to cities and towns. Those two contingencies are now being considered by the governor's budget team.

The contingencies are being made because Rowland says the state cannot afford to pay a projected $636 million over the next four years for raises for state employee unions. The unions counterattacked Thursday, releasing their own statistics that say the raises would cost about $200 million less than Rowland has projected.

In the battle of the pay raise projections, the unions say the cost will be an estimated $460 million over four years. Late Thursday, the legislature's nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis said the raises would cost $485 million over that period.

Jones, though, is proceeding with his work as the employees await a vote on the raises by the state Senate that is set for Jan. 18. Rowland is seeking to marshal support from 24 senators, the two-thirds necessary to reject the arbitration awards.

``My conclusion is that we're going to have to downsize agencies even beyond the hiring freeze'' that was imposed last week, he said. ``I don't know how many hundreds or thousands of jobs we're going to have to look at.''

Jones said it is not possible to make significant cuts in state spending without cutting personnel costs or aid to cities and towns, which are two of the largest portions of the $9.4 billion budget.

``There's no other way,'' Jones said. ``I can't cut debt service or entitlements.''

The union leaders said they were forced to hold a press conference Thursday to counteract Rowland's statements and unveil their ``truth squad'' in the battle of public perception regarding state workers.

``We do this because the facts and statistics that Governor Rowland distributed at the beginning of this week have no relationship at all to reality,'' said Susan Wasstrom, a spokeswoman for a coalition of state employee unions. ``We called this conference to point out to the citizens of Connecticut that their governor is misleading them and misrepresenting the facts.''

But Rowland's spokesman, John Chapin, said that Rowland would not back down on the cost estimates that were generated by the governor's budget office.

`Totally credible'

``We'll hang our hats very firmly on the $636 million as a totally credible number,'' Chapin said.

When general wage increases are added to the ``annual increments,'' the pay increases amount to about 6 percent for more than 15,000 state employees in various unions, according to the governor's budget office. Another 3,600 workers would receive increases ranging from 5.45 percent to 5.75 percent if the contracts are appproved. The lowest increases are for health care workers, at 1.7 percent, for each of the first two years and 4.7 percent in each of the next two years.

With a vote on the raises scheduled for next week, some Democratic senators have been invited to the governor's office for conversations about the raises.

As they consider their options, some senators are concerned that a vote for pay raises could ultimately be a vote for layoffs because of the increasing size of the state budget. But Rowland, in talking to Senate Republicans Wednesday, said he did not want to make any threats.

``I don't want to, in any way shape or form, suggest there's consequences, or that there's a fallout [from approving the raises],'' Rowland said. ``I think we're all smart enough to know that if we lose this option, it's going to be increasingly difficult [to cut spending and taxes].''

That was Wednesday. On Thursday, Jones started to make the contingency plans.

Rowland intends to continue talking about the salaries and benefits of state workers during the next week in the ongoing public relations battle. Many people, Chapin said, are unaware of the ``Cadillac'' benefits package that state workers receive.

Chapin described the following scenario to illustrate his point: a person works for the state for 10 years and becomes vested before leaving for another job at the age of 35, for example. The same person then lives and works somewhere else for the next 20 years before deciding to start receiving the state's retirement benefits at the age of 55.

``When you come back, you still get free medical benefits for you and your family forever,'' Chapin said. ``The insiders know that's one of the very expensive fringes.''